COMMUNITY RALLY
in support of Justice for Live-in Caregivers and Temporary Foreign Workers!
Sunday, July 5, 2009
1-5pm
Parkette beside Food Basics, main intersection at Wellesley St. E. and Ontario St.
We are a network of workers, advocates and community allies who are calling for fundamental changes to the federal Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) and other Temporary Foreign Worker Programs (TFWP).
Join us as we call for real protections and landed status NOW for all Temporary Foreign Workers!
Should impoverished migrants be exempted from an immigration application fee simply because they can't afford it?
That was the focus of a federal court case in Toronto on Wednesday involving three migrant families who argued that the $550 fee for humanitarian and compassionate applications - a last resort for failed refugee claimants and non-status individuals to stay in Canada - infringes on their constitutional and charter rights.
"The case is about the access to that process," said lawyer Angus Grant, who, along with colleague Andrew Dekany, represented the three families, the Gunthers from Hungary, the Krenas from the Congo and Nell Toussaint, a woman from Grenada.
Abousfian Abdelrazik is coming home! Finally!
We did it! Wonderful news!
Welcoming Festival
Toronto on Saturday, June 27 at 4.40 PM
International Arrivals Terminal 1
**Please email james.loney@sympatico.ca if you are coming or need a ride Please include your phone number if you need a ride.**
Abousfian Abdelrazik was imprisoned and tortured by Sudan in 2003 at Canada’s request and has been trying to return ever since. He is one of the many people who is being targeted by the arbitrary and racist national security polices being used in the so-called “War on Terror.”
The Canadian government was forced to bring him home after a June 4th court ruling found that his charter right to return to Canada had been violated and ordered that he be repatriated within thirty days.
In September and October of 2008, Tyendinaga community members objected to the delivery of a $1.9 million pre-fabricated police station, funded jointly by the Band Council and the federal Ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness. The Band Council failed to consult the broader community before making the decision that a new police station should take priority over clean drinking water on the reserve and other pressing issues. The reserve school down the road from the proposed police station site lacks drinkable water, and the majority of reserve homes remain on a boil-water advisory. Tyendinaga police issued 12 warrants for Tyendinaga Mohawks and over the ensuing months, arrested and charged them in connection with protests against the police station, as well as protests against an illegal quarry operation on the Territory.
Pledge to end racist scapegoating of migrant workers during economic recession
On Saturday June 6, 2009, nearly a hundred people assembled to hear from people directly affected by the recent Immigration raids that have terrorized migrant communities.
Immigration raids conducted in April saw over 100 migrant workers arrested and were followed by another raid in May where nearly 2 dozen workers were arrested.
"We are not illegal" related Flor, a migrant farm worker who witnessed the raids this May. "All we ask for is to make a living".
Another migrant worker who was arrested in the April raids explained her situation: She was forced to quit the job she had a work permit for because of horrendous conditions involving a criminal investigation against her employer. She was arrested in an Immigration raids while working and was jailed for a month.
No One Is Illegal-Toronto sends greetings of solidarity to delegates at the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) 2009 convention, 23-25 April 2009.
At the convention, OPSEU passed a historic resolution to join community groups in condemning immigration raids, demanding a full and inclusive regularization program (and lobbying NUPGE to take a similar stance), committing to lobbying the province to provide services to undocumented people, demanding that the government enact legislation that regulates recruitment agencies, work with community groups to develop educational materials, workshops and presentations for OPSEU membership and others, and make a financial contribution to No One Is Illegal-Toronto, Migrante Ontario and Justicia for Migrant Workers.
TESTIMONIES from people arrested in the raids!
Reports about Harper’s RACIST immigration plans!
A chance to EXPRESS your anger and disgust!
Build Canada’s first RAIDS RESPONSE NETWORK!
June 6, 1:30-3:00pm, 252 Bloor West
Join No One Is Illegal - Toronto, Justicia for Migrant Workers and Migrante-ON to for an open community dialogue and strategizing session on the recent immigration raids in Southern Ontario. June 6 will mark the launch of the Stop the Raids! Campaign and a community Raids Response Network. There will be testimonies from people arrested in the raids, reports about changes in the Immigration process and brief reports from the community raids response network.
Write to Prime Minister Harper, Leamington Police Chief Gow, and Immigration Enforcement Manager Schuler
On 27 and 28 May, 2009, CBSA with help from local Police arrested at least 20 farm-workers for no crime except that they were trying to earn a decent living.
These workplace raids cannot be allowed to become the new reality of Canadian Immigration. (For further information, see below.)
We need immediate, urgent action against CBSA-Windsor, the Leamington Police and Prime Minister Harper!
Your two minutes in sending an email could make a critical difference. Leamington has yet to see a concerted political campaign ?show them how many people think that these raids are unacceptable!
On May 2, 2009, over 2000 community activists, migrants and allies took to the streets.
We occupied the Yonge and Dundas intersection in the heart of downtown Toronto to make visible the non-status people that this sweatshop city wants to hide away.
We dropped 50 foot banners that read 'No One Is Illegal' and 'Stop the Raids' to make clear that migrants, with or without status, working people and the poor will not be criminalized.
We went to the gates of City Hall dropping massive banners at its doors to insist that Toronto, Ontario and Canada cannot ignore us.
School by school, college by college, hospital by hospital, shelter by shelter, food bank by food bank - one after the other we are going to liberate our homes, our workplaces and our communities. We will make them sanctuaries for all residents. If the powerful few will not let us in to their house of decisions, we will change the decisions where they are put in to practice.
